STATE 5A FOOTBALL QUARTERFINALS: Vikings come up short at Eagle

EAGLE — To beat any No. 1 team on its home field requires almost a perfect performance.

The Coeur d’Alene football team understood that, and at times during Friday night’s state 5A quarterfinal football matchup with Eagle, the Vikings were impressive.

Unfortunately, the Mustangs were just a little better in all three phases more often in a 48-39 victory that ended Coeur d’Alene’s season.

“We didn’t always play our best football, but we kept battling,” Coeur d’Alene coach Shawn Amos said.

Cd’A (6-4) put up 37 points on a defense that hadn’t allowed more than 20 points in any game this season. The Vikings passed for 408 yards and rushed for another 171 with junior quarterback Colson Yankoff doing most of the damage. He completed 42 of 50 passes for 408 yards with one touchdown and no interceptions. The University of Oregon commit also rushed for 129 yards and five touchdowns.

“He’s a special player,” Amos said. “But he doesn’t get all those completions without those receivers and our linemen. We’ve got a lot of good players on this team.”

Yankoff, who had only two incompletions after halftime, said numbers don’t matter if they don’t add up to a victory.

“We wanted to win that game,” Yankoff said after getting a hug on the field from his grandmother. “My numbers don’t matter. It really hurts not to come out with the ‘W’.”

The Vikings couldn’t have asked for a better start. They marched 80 yards on 13 plays in just under 4 minutes to take a 7-0 lead on Yankoff’s 2-yard scoring run. On the next possession, the defense forced a three-and-out by the Mustangs (10-0), making a large home crowd uneasy.

“Obviously it was a great drive to start the game, but we knew it was going to be a four-quarter battle,” Amos said.

Eagle responded, scoring on its next four possessions to take a 28-7 lead. Meanwhile, Cd’A had two three-and-outs, lost a fumble and was stopped short on a 4th-and-4 from the Eagle 25.

“Sometimes offensively we stalled out too early and kept our defense on the field too long,” Amos said.

The Vikings did score two more times, including one touchdown just 4 seconds before halftime to cut the score to 28-19.

“We came into the locker room and there was no doubt that we were going to come out the in the second half and play our hearts out,” Coeur d’Alene senior running back Joe Vang said.

After Alex Marshall recovered an Eagle fumble on third play of the second half, the Vikings were back in business.

Cd’A cut the lead to 28-26 on Yankoff’s fourth scoring run, but Eagle answered three plays later when Jonas Loyens (244 yards rushing) scored from 53 yards out. Slayter Jeffries, one of two quarterbacks Eagle uses regularly, also ran for 150 yards.

“We knew that coming in,” said Amos when asked about Eagle’s ground attack. “They’re good at what they do, and we knew we had to stop that. We didn’t stop them enough times.

“We thought we’d be able to defend their run a little better, but they obviously are very good at it.”

Cd’A fell behind 41-26 and 48-33 before Yankoff’s 5-yard TD run with 7:29 left in the game cut the deficit to 48-39.

“What we’re proud of is every time we got down by a couple of scores, we came back,” Amos said. “We kept battling back.”

The Vikings had one more shot and drove inside the red zone, but a lost fumble after a catch ended the team’s state championship hopes.

“It was a back and forth battle — I’m proud of our kids,” Amos said. “They never gave up. We’re proud of what our kids did. That’s a good team that ranks No. 1 in the state for a reason. I think we’re right there in the mix with the best teams in the state, but they won this game.”

Yankoff spread passes to eight different receivers, with Brody Lundblad leading the way with seven grabs for 129 yards a touchdown. The Vikings didn’t surrender a sack and had just one holding penalty on passing downs.

“My, oh my, their quarterback put on a show,” Eagle coach Paul Peterson said. “But I thought we did pretty well in the trenches. Jonas Loyens and the offensive line obviously had some great success running the football.”

“My guys were fantastic up front,” Yankoff said. “I can’t ask for anything more from them. I love them.”

Eagle blocked two extra points, which kept the margin at two scores that eventually proved to be too much to overcome.

“That’s why we work so hard to prepare and try to find that one little thing that might make a difference in games like these,” Peterson said. “The blocked extra points changed the strategy of the game.”

After the game, Amos walked around and hugged many of his players, who were devastated to have their seasons — and in some cases their careers — end.

“Our senior class was outstanding all year,” Amos said. “They were great leaders and we always talk about how they got it. That’s what important in this program is they care about each other. We talked about that last night. Guys understand what’s important.”

Vang agreed.

“It was a hell of the season with these boys,” Vang said. “We’re like a family.”

Coeur d’Alene 7 12 14 6 — 39

Eagle 7 21 13 7 — 48

First quarter

Cd’A — Yankoff 1 run (Harrison kick), 8:19

EAG — Jeffries 1 run (Klucewich kick), 1:59

Second quarter

EAG — Christensen 22 pass from Bridgewater (Klucewich kick), 10:34

EAG — Jeffries 1 run (Klucewich kick), 7:21

EAG — Jeffries 1 run (Klucewich kick), 3:37

Cd’A — Yankoff 1 run (kick blocked), 1:50

Cd’A — Yankoff 2 run (run failed), :04

Third quarter

Cd’A — Yankoff 1 run (Harrison kick), 8:25

EAG — Loyens 56 run (kick failed), 7:09

EAG — Snooks 48 pass from Bridgewater (Klucewich kick), 3:55

Cd’A — Lundblad 26 pass from Yankoff (Harrison kick), 1:03

Fourth quarter

EAG — Jeffries 16 run (Klucewich kick), 10:01

Cd’A — Yankoff 5 run (kick blocked), 7:29

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING — Cd’A, Yankoff 22-129, Vang 10-38, Beggerly 1-4. Eag, Loyens 22-244, Jeffries 20-150, Bridgewater 9-45.

PASSING — Cd’A, Yankoff 42-50-0-408, Vang 0-1-0-0. Eag, Bridgewater 7-10-0-129, Jeffries 1-1-0-35

RECEIVING — Cd’A, Lundblad 7-129, Ramseyer 6-82, Sumner 6-55, Naccarato 6-44, Prendergast 4-37, Vang 4-18, Gove 3-11, Thompson 1-2. Eag, Snooks 2-90, Christensen 2-57, Brown 1-11, Williams 1-9, Duckworth 1-0, Loyens 1-(-3)